msafri.bsky.social

A Man Was Lynched Yesterday Alex Pretti was killed by people who celebrated his death. They do not need better training. They demand a moral movement to disarm them and reconstruct democracy.

From William J. Barber, II and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove:
"The masks. The lies. The celebration. These are the hallmarks of a lynching. They clarify what we are facing.

These are not men who made a mistake."

YouTube video by Pooja Tripathi Brooklyn Coffee Shop Episode 55: Kumail Nanjiani, Barista Training Expert 🪪☕️

Kumail Nanjiani as H-word Inspector in Brooklyn: "My mom is into Marxism. She's got a Moms for Marx sticker on her Subaru."

Solidarity Mobilizations Training: ICE Out of Minnesota and Out of Everywhere · Showing Up for Racial Justice **Ready to stand in solidarity with the Twin Cities, honor the memory of Renee Good, and use this moment’s national momentum to deliver a serious blow to ICE and Trump’s agenda?** Join SURJ for a trai...

Tonight, 8pm, sign up! Minnesotan organizers leading solidarity action call. This training will cover: Why labor unions, social justice organizations, and thousands of outraged Minnesotans will enact a unified, statewide pause in daily economic activity on Friday, January 23rd.

holding the contradictions of life is very hard right now...

i need to embroider that on a tshirt and wear it to teach next week.

right after I finalize syllabi, of course I'll have oodles of time...

This still has free tix available! convo with @danieldenvir.bsky.social about municipal socialism for a live recording of @thedigradio.bsky.social. (sidenote, I had to deal with Ezra Klein's abundance 🙄 for a student's university paper, and asked her to check out some Dig podcasts as antidote).

I’ve turned a lot to Palestine Legal for help and advice in the last 10 yrs- plus they are just a collection of cool people. Please consider supporting this fundraiser.

They also interview activists involved in running the Great Plains communes, communes in China, and liberated Palestine and the Levant.

Makes me imagine what I have put out of the bounds of imagining in my lifetime.

Their book is the fictional equivalent to reading @ruha9.bsky.social's work. Set in NYC in 2072, on the anniversary of establishing the New York Commune: a series of oral history interviews with activists about the 2040's, insurrection in 2052, and the early years of running NYC communes.

Everything For Everyone — Common Notions Press

from @emanabdelhadi.bsky.social and ME O'Brien:
"O’Brien: What does the commune mean to you?
Kelley: It means we take care of each other. It means everything for everyone. It means we communized the shit out of this place. It means we took something that was property and made it life."

Obviously we are inspired by recent events- and I was reading 2 nights ago and it felt to me a “freedom dream”

Everything For Everyone — Common Notions Press

I had started reading this book Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052–2072 (by @emanabdelhadi.bsky.social and M. E. O’Brien) in the summer and then got interrupted, but I'm finishing it now!!
it should be required reading for NY DSA chapters.

Storefront with a picture of Zohran and sale of goat sign

Queens is amazing- lots of zohran posters in storefronts and goat for 6.99 a pound? As opposed to 18.99 per pound in curry hill…

Thanks for reading it!!

Appraising Mamdani’s Five Key Policies — The Democracy Collaborative Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s policies are not only feasible, but could work to improve the lives of a majority of New Yorkers. And they have past precedent in the city, Professor Maliha Safri wr...

I wrote this piece for the Democracy Collaborative:
"Appraising Mamdani's Five Key Policies"
Looking forward to seeing friends this weekend for get out the vote efforts (I'm signed up for friday, saturday, and sunday!)

In Queens, at the big rally- and Kathy Hochul was repeatedly interrupted by “tax the rich” chants. She also butchered Z’s name and people started chanting the correct pronunciation. But Zohran came out and saved her- people cheered and he escorted her off stage. #shareyourshine

Yes - sorry! Posted too quickly

Chicago, you have my heart always.
The neighborhood he describes - Belmont Cragin- was where I went to grade school.

Rally for zohran volunteers tonight in Washington heights. On stage is a 15 and 80 yr old volunteer talking about volunteering bec they are New Yorkers worried about fascism and inequality.

Parents Surprised When Their Daughter Started Speaking Spanish. Then They Realized Where She Learned It (Exclusive) A viral TikTok captured the moment Ebony’s toddler responded in Spanish to her daycare teacher, and now the family is embracing bilingual learning together.

So this is People magazine: "“I started noticing, around 9 months, she was saying ‘agua’ instead of water”

“She’s acknowledging what her teacher is saying and doing what she’s telling her to do in Spanish, which we thought was awesome,” Ebony shares.

I am so grateful for the thinking of Raul Peck. One early line in film is haunting quote from Orwell:
“my starting point is always a feeling of partisanship, a sense of injustice.”

Raoul Peck. I think I snagged the very last seat sold tonight… he is to also speak afterwards.

Trump and Netanyahu agree new US peace plan for Gaza and warn Hamas to accept - live President Trump says Israel would have US backing to

I thought Tony Blair was done damaging (remember his full-throated support for Bush's war in Iraq?) He's back calling this plan "bold and intelligent". Apparently, we have Jared Kushner to thank for setting up the Tony Blair Institute for Social Change -TBI.
better acronym GFOH

YouTube video by Nimesh Patel Indian American History 101 | Nimesh Patel

this comedian summed up two weeks of lectures on race, Indians,and US:
"Bhagat Singh Thind goes to US Supreme Court. Is this Brown guy white? Nope! go back to India. They deported those 3000 Indian people."

McCarthy Blacklists are associated with Hollywood, but they rippled thru other fields including radio, labor organizations, education, religion and the government itself.
What are today's watchlists?
Canary Mission
The Professor Watchlist
...are there others I miss?

Fall canvas Zetrocard! From a Jackson heights shift where I got to talk to folks in Urdu, Spanish, and English

Thank you @urbanaffairsreview.bsky.social and Emily Holloway for so skillfully interviewing myself and my 3 coauthors! Nice summary of how we got to this decade long project.

Thank you Emily Holloway- For guiding this conversation!!

Sign up for the big fall mayoral canvas for Zohran this weekend New Yorkers and you can get this card! I’ll be in Jackson heights
volunteer.zohranfornyc.com/canvass-for-...

when the left has ideas about interventions
vs
the fascist ideas about state intervention

"Hedge fund billionaires Bill Ackman and Dan Loeb, Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase and tech entrepreneur Brian Armstrong of Coinbase all warned about the risk of heavy-handed interference in the city’s economy."